As you read this, the voters in many states have already gone to the polls; by the time many of you get home from working and voting, much of the composition of the U.S. Senate, House of Representatives and Governors’ mansions will be pretty much decided. I put a lot of confidence in the voters in spite of, rather than because of, the passionate, even intemperate way that much campaigning is conducted. It has always been thus; Americans’ serious choices certainly deserve passion.

I still see Republicans holding the House, although with a smaller majority; I see Republican gains in the Senate in the range of 3 to 7 seats. In our Oregon home to the north, their Governor Brown is only ahead of her Republican opponent by about 4 points; here in California, it’s sad to say Cox trails Newsom by 17 pts. Our reliably liberal columnists aside, LaMalfa will be reelected; I voted for him. I’ll explain it all below

It is still the best strategy for our state and country to retain current Republican office holders. Where possible, we should replace Democrats so that their party might begin to have a reckoning over the politics of destruction they have implemented in pursuit of higher taxes, immigration free-for-all, soft-on-crime policies and anti-business economic illiteracy. “It’s all gone: The Democrats’ dead ideals,” by Roger Kimball, put forth a devastating case that, in the aftermath of the Brett Kavanaugh hearings, “the ground is littered with dead and wounded ideals: civility, basic decency, the presumption of innocence, due process.”

Credit Diane Feinstein and the howling mobs (as real a thing as “riots”) that perverted righteous passion into twisted rage without limits, willingly assassinating the character, reputation and previously inviolable peace of innocent family members (i.e. Kavanaugh, Trump administration people, identifiable conservatives in public spaces, etc.). It all spews from a deep-seated inability to accept any of our constitutional institutions, particularly the electoral process, when said institutions and processes fail to implement the progressives’ preferred policies and candidates.

“The Democratic Party has turned into a crazed, howling mob. It is degrading our pubic life to a degree that has not been seen since they seceded in 1861…as in this story: ‘Blackburn backlash shocks Mt. Juliet restaurant owner.’” It relays Courtney’s Restaurant and Catering owner Tom Courtney’s description of the social media backlash “because he rented the event room at his Mt. Juliet (Tennessee) business to U.S. Senate candidate Rep. Marsha Blackburn…He’s been called a Nazi, an abuser, had his life threatened and his staff verbally attacked.” The Democrats are trying to bully their way back into power through aggression. These tactics must not be allowed to succeed. “The republic depends on it.” (John Hinderaker)

Let’s note here the recurring issue of vote fraud. “Voter fraud exists—Even though many in the media claim it doesn’t” (by John Fund and Hans A. Spakovsky, Fox News), makes an irrefutable case for the real threats to election integrity, which have nothing to do with voter ID laws. The Democrat/media cabal loves to bandy about the straw man arguments about “minority voter suppression,” which is actually a rather racist concept. A reporter interviewed random African-Americans on the street to ask if they knew of anyone who did not possess, or even anyone who didn’t know where to procure, an ID from the DMV or other government office. Short answer: they said “no” to both; it was a ludicrous question.

In Texas, indictments cited vote “harvesters” that submitted fraudulent absentee ballot applications, which were then intercepted and filled out, or used to “assist” elderly voters in filling out their ballots. Our California news reports have highlighted how tens of thousands of ineligible voters were registered, which came to light only because a Canadian permanent resident told the LA Times that he’d been improperly registered.

In Pennsylvania, literally thousands of noncitizens were allowed to register, and possibly even vote, by DMV officials. The Public Interest Legal Foundation likewise found that Michigan lacks a system to keep false citizenship claims from being accepted during voter registration, citing 1,444 non-citizens registered. In 2012 the Pew Center on the States found that more than 1.8 million dead people were registered to vote and 2.75 million people were registered in more than one states. 24 million registrations were either invalid or inaccurate, making the registration systems vulnerable to fraud.

The Heritage Foundation created an interactive map to allow the perusal of each states’ records of convictions for various voting fraud schemes: “Election Fraud Cases from Across the United States,” at www.heritage.org/voterfraud. Read about 1,200 proven instances of voter fraud, and 1,020 criminal convictions. Jason Snead wrote: “New Voter Fraud Cases Show Need to Secure Our Elections.”

I must change a ballot advisory: all bond measures—from 1 through 4—get a no vote from me. I can’t justify any new indebtedness until California gets its excessive spending on public employees and benefits for the welfare masses cut back. Heartless? I am only agreeing with Bill Clinton’s welfare reform goals and Al Gore’s “end of big government.” I voted “yes” on Propositions 5,6,7 and 11.

Tonight, watch for early indications of Republican Senate wins in Florida, Tennessee, Ohio, Indiana, Missouri and North Dakota to send a precursor of holding Republican Senate seats in Nevada and Arizona. That may bring a total of 54 to 57 Republican seats, a solid win for Trump.

The House of Representatives has for months seemed to be excessively described as going to the Democrats, a media projection based on their desire to see President Trump repudiated and subjected to unhinged Democrat committee chairs launching endless investigations and subpoenas. As I’ve written, it’s like a water truck owner hoping for, or even starting, fires so as to have work security. The news media is happy to promote outcomes suiting its own obsession with covering manufactured scandal. I could be wrong but I doubt it.

Don Polson has called Red Bluff home since 1988. He can be reached by e-mail at donplsn@yahoo.com.